Pickled Olives - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 kg green olives (or black)
1/3 cup fine sea salt
1 liter water
1/2 cup olive oil (approx)

Preparation

Pick over the olives, discard any with big blemishes.
With a parring knife, cut down the side of the olive, thru to the stone, then turn over and repeat on the other side.
Place the olives in a 2 litre (8 cup) sterilized jars, untill the jars are 2/3 full, then cover olives with cold water.
To keep the olives submerged, fill a small plastic bag with water, and sit it on top of the olives. (I used a sandwich, ziplok bag).
Change the water daily, scum may appear on the surface, but that's fine. Change the water for 4 days with black olives, and for 6 days with green olives.
Combine the salt and water, stir over heat until the salt has dissolved, cool.
Drain and discard the water in the jars, fill with enough salted water to cover the olives.
Pour enough oil into the jars to cover the olives completely, and then seal the jars.
Mark the date on the jars and store in a cool dark place for 5 weeks.
After 5 weeks they are ready to eat, but you can then marinate them for another 2 weeks using lemon wedges and garlic, or whatever you like.
Cover with oil.
Note: don't mix your olives! they must be pickles separately.